Lazy Cakes: The Not-So-Safe Way to Get Your Zzzzz’s

Sleep-inducing brownies dubbed Lazy Cakes are being sold in adult bookstores (bad sign right there), clubs and some specialty food shops under the label, “the official relaxation brownie.”

The seemingly harmless treats contain nearly 8 milligrams of melatonin, a dietary supplement known to promote sleep. Trouble is, 8 milligrams is about 25 times the recommended 0.3 to 3 milligrams prescribed for adults, making it more like Valium cloaked in chocolate than a bedtime snack.

At least two Massachusetts towns are considering banishing the chocolate confection altogether due to reports of children eating a few bites of the cakes, zonking out and being rushed to the ER.

So are they safe for adults?

“It’s a colossally bad idea to put melatonin in food,” Charles A. Czeisler, MD, chief of the division of sleep medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told The New York Times. “It’s making it much more difficult for the consumer to recognize that they are taking a drug.”

Sure, melatonin is marketed as a natural sleep aid, but experts argue it can be dangerous to adults at the level baked into one Lazy Cake. Just imagine the repercussions if you ate two brownies (and let’s face it, who really eats only one brownie?)

The Lazy Cakes label carries a Supplement Facts panel, presumably to get around the FDA’s food labeling laws. But (hello!) the product is not a dietary supplement — it’s a brownie!

“It sounds to me like they are trying to claim that the entire brownie is like a tablet, which is, of course, preposterous,” Czeisler told the Times.

The Lazy Cakes scheme hasn’t gone unnoticed by the FDA, which claims that any food product containing melatonin as an additive may be subject to regulatory action.

We’re also a little disturbed by the fine print, which recommends one-half brownie, twice a day, and a warning not to operate heavy machinery (including a car)!

Plus, these brownies contain 2 grams of trans fat per brownie (gasp!) — an unforgiveable sin in the nutrition world.

Lazy Cakes aren’t the only food or beverage product on the market slapping a Supplement Facts panel on labels while pushing high doses of melatonin on a stressed-out, sleep-deprived public. Others include Kush Cakes, Lulla Pies and Mary J’s Relaxation Brownies.